


Not Without a Fight

by 2edge4u



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Horror, Slasher AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-12 01:13:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 21,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4459610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2edge4u/pseuds/2edge4u
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura and Carmilla Karnstein go on a trip arranged by their friends LaF and Perry to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary. After they drop off their daughter at Laura's dad's, they are on a plane to Alaska where all their friends are waiting for their arrival. The first night is pleasant, but when they wake up the next morning they soon find out that there is an uninvited guest the house as well. Laura takes charge of the group and they all try to fight their way out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, I want to be clear that I LOVE this show and cherish every single character in it (except for the dean and maybe Vordie). I wrote this fic because I wanted to bring two of my favorite things together in one AU; horror and Carmilla. I'm really proud of this so I hope y'all enjoy it.
> 
> HUGE THANK YOU to my friend youredoingitforjesus for being my beta and for letting me talk through ideas about this. :)
> 
> You probably should not read this if you don't like blood and gore. Some of it gets pretty graphic later on. Also, please understand that A LOT of people die in this story, but it will all be ok.

“Carmilla, we’ll miss our flight if you don’t get up off the couch and help me!” I yelled from the bedroom.

I’m in here trying to pack the last minute things we had to buy for this trip. We haven’t lived in a really cold environment for years, so we’ve gotten rid of most of our heavy coats and snow boots. It sucks that we’re going to have to check yet another bag on the plane, but I don’t want to freeze either. Going to stay in a house in Alaska for the weekend isn’t exactly how I expected to be spending my ten year wedding anniversary, but it would be good for Carm and I to spend some time together. Perry was sweet enough to organize this whole trip so maybe it will be fun.

“Carm, I’m serious!”

“Cupcake, no need to shout. I’m right here,” she says, sauntering into the room. “How can I help?”

“I need you to finish putting all of this in the bags while I go and get Katie ready. We’re supposed to be at my dad’s by seven and we’ll never make it at this rate.”

She glides over to me, placing her hands on my hips before I even stand up. She grabs my shoulder, spinning me up and into her arms before saying “go take care of our daughter. I will have this done and we’ll be out the door. No reason to get all worked up,” she says before kissing me lightly on the nose. “Now, why were you mad?” she asks and raises an eyebrow.

“I honestly have no idea.” I lean in and kiss her softly on the lips. After all these years together, she still makes me feel brand new. “I’m going to go get Katie ready.”

“You do that. See you soon, cutie.” She says before I walk out the bedroom and down the hall to Katie’s room.

Katie just turned six about a month ago so her room is a mix between a little girl’s paradise and a young woman’s fortress. We’ve always allowed her decorate her room how she wanted because it was important that she have a space that she feels comfortable in. As of right now, the walls are painted an electric blue. Carmilla insisted on a white crown molding to add at least a little sophistication to the room. Covering the walls are posters and pictures of all the things she seems to love. There’s an entire wall dedicated to Fifth Harmony, much to Carmilla’s dismay. I think they sound great to be honest, but Carm hates the majority of their songs. She would never let Katie know that though because Carmilla lives and breathes for that little one as much as I do. Around the room you can also find pictures and figures of female heroines like Katniss Everdeen, Peggy Carter, Lois Lane and Hermione Granger. All across the ceiling and down one wall are posters of constellations and galaxies that glow in the dark, turning her bedroom into a space nerd’s wonderland at bed time. Carm always tells me that Katie has the best of both of us in her, and in moments like this I really believe her.

“Katie, are you almost ready sweetheart?” I ask.

“Yea, mommy. I just have to get my pictures and Lophii,” Katie answers.

She comes out from beside the dresser with a giant stuffed fish before walking over to gently pack him in her bag. She’s only staying with my dad for a few days while Carm and I are gone but she’s packing as if she were leaving for college. I guess she gets her need to feel over prepared from me.

“Mommy, could you grab my pictures for me?” she asks.

“Of course, baby.” I walk over to the table by her bed and grab two framed pictures for her. One picture is of her and our dog Courage in the back yard and the other picture is of the three of us on our last family vacation. Katie is sitting on Carmilla’s shoulders and Carm has her hands around my waist holding me tight while some tourist snapped the photo of us at the beach. I know that out of all the things in this room, she treasures these pictures the most and I feel so lucky to have her and Carmilla In my life. I love them so much.

“Are you ready to go?” I ask.

“Yes, but I wish that you and momma were coming with me or that I could go with you. I love grandpa but I’ll miss you mommy,” she says before wrapping her tiny little arms around my legs.

I kneel down to look at my sweet girl before saying “I’m going to miss you so much, Katie. I’ll miss you more than fish need water. I’ll miss you more than plants need the sun.” I see her face start to light up so I know it’s working. “I’ll miss you more than momma likes chocolate,” she giggles. “Katie, I’ll miss you more than you like chicken nuggets.”

We both break out into laughter and I tickle her a little bit to prolong the moment. While I said all those things to cheer her up, I meant every word of it. I’ve never spent more than a day apart from her since she was born and I don’t know how I will be able to handle a whole weekend.

“Having fun without me you two?” Carmilla says from the doorway.

“Momma!” Katie yells and runs over to her. Carm drops down to scoop Katie up in her arms and hold her as if she were still a baby. Sometimes I think Carm wishes that Katie could stay young forever; so do I.

“What have you two been up to my little warrior?” Carmilla asks.

“Nothing. Mommy was just helping me pack but I’m ready now.”

“Is that so?”

“Yep, I’m ready to spend some time with grandpa.”

Carmilla sets Katie down and picks up her bags to carry to the front door. We do one more sweep of the house before setting the alarm and heading for my dad’s place. We don’t have much time to spare if we’re going to make our flight so whatever we forgot will have to stay forgotten.

* * *

 

It’s a good thirty minute drive from our home to my dad’s place. He lives out in the middle of nowhere and I honestly wouldn’t mind that but Carmilla and I both work in the city. Carmilla works as an art broker and I own my own landscape design business. I don’t think that we ever intended on living a normal life of working 9-5 with a kid and a dog, but I wouldn’t change a thing even if I could. My life is absolutely perfect and it makes it even better knowing that I get to share it all with Carmilla.

We pull up in my dad’s driveway just as the sun is starting to heat up the day. Katie fell back asleep on the way over so Carm unbuckles her from her booster seat before carrying her to the front door. I gather up Katie’s bags and meet Carmilla at the door and then ring the doorbell. My dad comes stumbling to the door and opens it with his usually loud “HEY THERE!” before I quickly shush him.

“Sorry dad, she’s just sleeping and she’ll be cranky is she doesn’t get her ten hours,” I whisper.

“Like mother like daughter,” Carmilla says.

“Sorry dear, I didn’t realize. Come in, come in. Carmilla you can take her straight back to the guest room. Everything’s been cleaned so she’ll be comfortable there” dad says.

“Thanks Michael,” Carmilla says while carrying our tired girl down the hallway.

I lean over and wrap my dad in the strongest bear hug I can manage. I really miss seeing him all the time so when I’m around him I treasure every moment.

“Laura, how are you? How is the family?” he asks.

“I’m great, dad. Katie’s doing well in school. Work is great.”

“Carmilla still treating you right?”

“Dad, she’s perfect. She treats me better than either of us could have ever hoped for. I still don’t know how I got so lucky as to marry her.”

“She’s the lucky one, Laura. Never forget it.”

He kisses me on the forehead before taking Katie’s bags to put them away. He and Carmilla pass each other in the hall and exchange knowing glances.

“How’s she doing?” I ask.

“She’s fast asleep and in bed. I’m sure she would love to say goodbye though,” Carmilla says as she walks over to me.

“Yea, good idea.”

Carmilla pulls me into a loose hug before kissing my temple. I squeeze her gently before letting go and walking back to the guest room. My dad is walking out as I’m walking in and I give him one of my ‘be nice’ looks before returning my attention to Katie. He and Carmilla get along fine, I just don’t think that anyone will ever be good enough for me in his eyes.

Katie is curled up in a ball under the sheets with one hand up by her face and the other gripped tightly around Lophii. I sit on the bed beside her and brush the light blonde hair away from her face. I would sometimes think of having a child when I was younger, but I never really knew what that meant. When Carmilla and I got married, it wasn’t until a few years later that I really understood my desire to raise a child with her but nothing could have prepared me for the bright light that Katie has brought into my life. She is a perfect child; every parent’s dream. She is honest, generous, kind, sweet, funny and full of more love than any person I’ve ever known.

I reach down to kiss her hair and she stirs awake.

“Mommy, are you leaving?” she asks, wiping the sleep away from her eyes.

“Yes baby, but momma and I will be back really soon. It’s only two bed times before you’ll see us again.”

“Two bedtimes? That’s not so bad.”

“Good, now I need you to be brave and take care of your grandpa while I’m gone. Can you do that for me?” I ask.

“Mission accepted, mommy.” She says, sitting up a little in her bed and saluting me.

“Good girl… I mean thank you Agent Katie,” I say, saluting her back. “Now, you’ll need your rest if you’re going to complete your mission.”

“You’re right, I should go back to sleep,” she says while sliding down into the covers.

“I love you, Katie,” I say and kiss her on the forehead.

“I love you too, mommy.” Her eyes are closed and she’s asleep before she takes another breath.

I pull the covers over her shoulders, tuck her in and go to join Carmilla and my dad in the living room. God only knows how awkward that conversation must be. When I walk in, I am completely blown away by what I see in front of me. I quickly duck back into the shadow of the hallway so to not disturb this extremely rare moment. They’re hugging and it’s not one of those weird side hugs either. It’s a full embrace with my dad rubbing Carmilla’s back and whispering ‘thank you’ to her. Carmilla is hugging him back and I don’t think I can remember ever being this happy.

They pull back and my dad pats Carmilla on the shoulder before saying “Take care of her, will you?”

“Michael, I always have and I always will. You’ll take care of my sunshine while we’re gone?” Carmilla asks.

“Of course, we’re family after all.”

I clear my throat so to not surprise them as I walk into the room. I walk over to Carm and wrap her into a hug and looking up at her.

“Ready to go?” I ask.

“Ready if you are. Katie ok?” Carmilla asks.

“She has a mission to complete so she’s getting her rest.” Carmilla nods but my dad just looks confused. “Dad, you’ll see. Don’t worry,” I say.

“Alright then. Anyway, happy anniversary you two. Get going before you miss your flight. I’ll take care of Katie. You two have fun with your friends,” dad says before pulling me into a tight hug. He and Carmilla just shake hands as if they hadn’t just hugged it out. They’re adorable and I love it.

“Thanks dad. We’ll see you on Monday morning.”

“Yea, thanks Michael. Have a good weekend,” Carm says.

“You girls have fun!” and with that we’re out the door and off to our anniversary party weekend.

* * *

 

Our flight leaves in just over an hour and we’re just now pulling into the parking garage of the airport. I would feel much better if we were here a lot earlier than this, but after thirteen years of living with Carmilla, she has calmed me down a bit. If we had gotten here any earlier, we would have had to sit around and wait for our flight. Carmilla is usually right about things like this and it only took me more than a decade to start seeing that. This is one of many reasons why we’re good for each other. We balance each other out.

We finally make it through security and check our bags, leaving us twenty minutes before boarding is scheduled to begin.

“Hey, wanna grab a drink? We have just enough time.” Carm says.

“Sounds good.”

We head over to the bar that’s closest to our gate and I order us a couple of beers.

“So what was that all about back there with my dad?” I ask, turning toward Carmilla.

The bartender places our drinks in front of us.

“What are you talking about?” she says, taking a rather large gulp of her Blue Moon so she doesn’t have to elaborate.

“I saw that whole hug thing, Carmilla.”

“Oh. I see. Well, I really don’t know where it came from honestly. He just thanked me for taking care of you and making you so happy. It’s like he finally really accepts me,” she says and takes another drink.

“I can’t believe he opened up to you like that. That’s just so…”

“I know, Laura. I’m really happy about it too. Your dad can be annoying but it’s important to me that we get along because it makes you happy. I like your dad. I always did. I just think that now things are going to be different.”

“I’m so happy. Everything is just so perfect. Katie’s the most amazing young lady, you and I are celebrating ten years of marriage and my dad is finally coming around. Things couldn’t get any better,” I say smiling at her.

Carmilla puts her drink down, lightly cupping my face and pulling me into a kiss. You would think that by now I’ve memorized all her moves, but she’s still able to surprise me. It’s as if there weren’t thousands of people in this airport with us the way she’s making me melt on this bar stool. By the time I come back from whatever place she took me to, she’s standing up and in between my legs pressing into me as hard as she can. She pulls back and I realize that my face is entirely too red, my mouth is hanging open and I can’t catch my breath to save my life. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of kissing her; even when we’re married for another ten, twenty, fifty years.

“Earth to Cupcake. They said out flight is boarding,” she says smiling like she’s won a battle I didn’t know we were fighting.

“Oh, we should go then,” I say, trying to stand with weak knees.

Carmilla puts some money on the bar, grabs our carry-on bag and my hand and leads me over to the boarding area. This is definitely one of my favorite things about her. Her ability to be incredibly sexy and make me forget my own name one moment and be a complete gentlewoman and sweep me of my feet the next will be forever mesmerizing to me.

We board the plane with no problems and settle in to our seats. Perry sprung for first class seating so we’re sitting in these huge leather reclining chairs with more leg room than anyone needs. If this is any indication of how the rest of the trip is going to go, I think this weekend will turn out to be amazing.

“Holy crap, I don’t ever want to fly coach again!” I say.

“Yea, coach is for suckers and broke people like us.” Carmilla laughs.

“Haha, I know. This is just so… nice.”

“Yea, I would rather just go somewhere just me and you but maybe this trip won’t be so bad after all,” Carm says.

I lean over the short distance it takes to get from my chair to hers and pull her into another kiss. After all, this weekend is all about celebrating the love between us so I have a feeling we’re going to be making out in a lot of places we probably shouldn’t. For some reason, I just don’t seem to care about anything else but her right now.

We’re interrupted by the flight attendants giving flight instructions and others walking around to check our bags and seat belts. Once they finish all the pre-flight crap we finally taxi out the gate and take off. Carmilla has never really been good with flying but as long as she can squeeze my hand she seems to do ok now. She doesn’t get nauseous anymore and can actually breathe during the ascent.

“You ok?” I ask once we level out.

“Yea, I’m fine. You know I hate that.” she responds.

“Yea, I’m sorry. Do you need anything?” I ask. Maybe I could get her a drink or something when the seatbelt light turns off.

“No, I’m fine. As long as you’re here I’ll be fine.” She says and pulls me into a kiss. Even in the throes of panic and fear, she’s able to make out with me. I can’t believe this woman is my wife.

I wrap my fingers behind her neck and deepen the kiss. Her hands make it into my hair and pull it gently. After a while of her trying to mold her mouth to mine, we’re interrupted by someone clearing their throat from behind us.

“I’m sorry, um, could you please refrain from that level of uh… public affection… I’m sorry,” the flight attendant says looking more embarrassed than she probably should be.

“I’m sorry. It’s our ten year wedding anniversary and we’re feeling a little…”

“Horny.” Carm says, placing her hand on my knee.

“Jesus, Carmilla! Don’t say things like that to strangers!” I say, swatting her hand away. “I’m sorry, you won’t have a problem from us again.”

The girl smiled softly and ran up the aisle to get away from us as quickly as she could.

“Could you have embarrassed that poor girl any more, Carmilla?”

“I probably could have.” she says.

“Ok, I love you but I don’t want to get banned from this airline. No more messing around until we get on solid ground. Got it?”

She leans really close to me before whispering “I’m looking forward to it.”

I busy myself with a movie on my tablet while Carmilla reads some old book to pacify the couple of hours that we have to spend on this flight. We’re served drinks and snacks somewhere around lunch time, but it honestly only makes me hungrier. After a trip to the bathroom and another half of a movie, we’re getting ready to land. Carmilla’s sitting by the window but I want to see what Alaska looks like from up here so I crawl into her lap before peeling back the blinds.

“Oh, I thought we weren’t messing around until we landed but here you are giving me a lap dance on a plane.” she says, grabbing my hips.

“Shut up, I just wanted to see. Look at how thick the snow is here, Carm. It’s beautiful.”

She leans forward and places her chin on my shoulder and whispers “It really is.” right into my ear causing shivers to run down my spine. I swear that if we weren’t on a plane right now this could turn into a lap dance real quick. We look out the window in wonder until we’re instructed to return to our seats.

“You better buckle up, Creampuff. Don’t want to get in more trouble.” Carm says while sitting back in her seat.

I slide off her lap and over to my seat. As much as she hates take-offs, Carmilla hates the landings so much more so I want to make sure she’s as comfortable as she can be. I can feel the plane begin to lose altitude while Carmilla increases the pressure of her hand on mine. I reach over with my other hand to softly rub her arm ad it relaxes her a little bit. The plane runs into a bit of turbulence and Carmilla gasps, clamping her eyes shut and shaking her head. I let go of her hand and pull her into a tight hug. She squeezes me tight while I whisper ‘it’s ok’ into her ear until we feel the wheels hit the tarmac.

She pulls back and gives me a kiss that says ‘thank you,’ I love you’ and ‘I’m sorry’ all at the same time. I know that she hates feeling scared, but this is something that she can’t help. I’m just glad that I know her well enough now to be able to help her in these situations without her having to ask for it.

We gather our things and exit the plane rather quickly. I guess that’s just another perk of flying first class. On the way out the door, I give an apologetic wave to that poor flight attendant from earlier. She waved back until Carm put her arm around me and into the back pocket of my jeans, squeezing my ass in clear view of the poor kid. She blushed and quickly averted her gaze.

“Carmilla, I swear to god…”

“What? We’re on solid ground and I can’t help that the girl likes what she sees. I have a very hot wife and she needed to know that you’re mine.”

“I don’t think that’s why she was so-“

“Oh, I disagree. When you smiled at her on the way into the plane I thought she was going to come right then and there.”

“Are you serious? I had no idea.”

“You are so sweet sometimes, I can’t believe it. You have no idea of the effect you have on people sometimes do you?” she asks.

“I guess not. I’m not really concerned about them, Carm. Only you.” I say before leaning up for a quick kiss.

Perry left instructions to go to the car rental desk once we’ve landed. She arranged a car for us to drive to the house instead of taking a taxi service. I’m so glad too because I really want some time alone with Carm before we join everyone else. I love Katie with everything that I am, but Carm and I don’t get much alone time anymore. I’m really looking forward to that.

We retrieve our luggage while the valet pulls our car around. The house where we’re staying is about an hour from where we are now so we have quite a bit of traveling left to do. We stop for something to eat while we’re still in Anchorage. I’m sure Perry has an elaborate meal planned for tonight but Carm and I have been traveling all day and we’re pretty hungry.

We drive the rest of the way to the house content and happy. There’s something about riding shotgun next to Carmilla with my hand in hers that makes me feel young again.

I’m thankful that the SUV had built in GPS because this house is in the middle of nowhere. We had to drive down endless dirt roads to get here. The isolation of this place must be really calming. It’s no wonder this is one of Perry’s favorite places to work. She gets really intense when working on a new play and she doesn’t like to be bothered. She inherited a ton of money from her parents when they passed a few years back. This allowed her to become a full time playwright and she bought this house so she could work without everyone around to bother her. Well… everyone except LaF that is. They’ve been together even longer than Carmilla and I. They’re honestly a really sweet couple that deserves all the happiness the world can bring them.

Two years ago LaF invented a new medicine that will help patients who suffer from specific auto immune diseases manage their symptoms better than steroids or other toxic pills. Perry’s inheritance allowed LaF to focus more on their side projects and this new medicine was born out of that free time. Now, LaF is making enough money on that new pill that they and Perry would be millionaires ten times over even without Perry’s inheritance. I’m really proud of them and I’m so happy for them both.

We pull up into the driveway just when it’s starting to snow. My heavy coat is packed in my suitcase so I’m a little afraid to get out of the car. It’s dangerously close to dropping below freezing outside and I moved away from the cold for a reason.

“Ready for this?” I ask.

“Yea, ready as I’ll ever be.” she responds. She doesn’t really do well around a lot of people so this weekend may be a test on her patience.

“It’s all going to be ok. I’ll be right by you side the entire time. We’ll be in our room alone tonight before you know it.” I say inching closer by the second.

“That I can look forward to.” she says closing in the rest of the distance and kissing me like we have nowhere to be.

I pull back and rest my forehead on hers. “Let’s go.”

She fights down a groan and gets out of the car to help me with the bags. We make quick work of carrying everything to the door and ringing the doorbell.

After a few seconds of shivering on the doorstep, the large wooden double doors swing open and we’re greeting to an especially cheery LaFontaine on the other side.

“Laura! Carmilla! How the hell are you guys?” they ask.

“I’m great LaF, how are you?” I say.

“I’m great too. Happy as ever. We’re so glad to have you guys here. Happy anniversary.” they say.

“Thanks, LaFontaine. We appreciate the hospitality or whatever.” Carmilla says.

“No problem, come in out of the cold. Most of everyone is here already. We’re just waiting on Danny and Betty. You guys should go and say hi. They’re in the living room.”

“Ok, are you coming? “ I ask.

“I’ll be there in a minute. I’m going to let Perr know you’re here and check to see if she needs anything.”

“Ok, see you soon then.” I say before dropping my bags by the stairs and leading Carmilla into the living room by her hand.

“Little nerd! Did you get even smaller in the last three years?” Kirsch yells from across the room.

“Oh god here we go.” Carm says from behind me.

“Hey, Kirsch. I think you may have just gotten taller or something.” I say back to him. “Hi, Sarah Jane. How are you guys?”

“Oh, we’re great. Right honey?” Kirsch directs toward S.J.

“Hey Laura, Carmilla. Yea, we’re great. The twins are getting so big. They’ll be starting kindergarten next year.”

“Oh, wow! That’s so great. I can’t believe our kids are growing up so fast.”

“Yea, they are. It won’t be much longer before my boys are taller than you, little nerd.” Kirsch says.

Carmilla glares at him, causing him to turn and call the others over to avoid her death stare. Carm must feel a little anxious since she pulled me into a hug and kissed my forehead. When she pulls away, I tug her back in, kissing her neck and then looking up at her. “It’s going to be ok,” I say and see her shoulders drop and she takes a deep breath.

Will and his girlfriend Natalie and their friends Mel and Theo walk over to join us. We’ve known Will and Natalie since we were in college. They didn’t actually get together until after graduation, but they might as well have made it official years before that. They spent every waking moment together starting during our sophomore year and were really. It took them a long time to acknowledge how deep their feelings were for each other but I’m really happy they did. Will has been in and out of trouble most of his life and Natalie is really helping him get better. She’s really good for him.

“Hey everyone, thanks for coming. It’s really good to see you all.” I say.

“Good seeing you too, short stuff.” Will says.

“Hey Laura. Carmilla.” Natalie says.

Mel and Theo just give us a shy wave and a half smile. We haven’t known them nearly as long as everyone else. Theo is a work friend of Will’s and he and his girlfriend Mel just kind of joined our friends group a few years back. They’re both very nice and all, they just kind of keep to themselves.

We’re all making small talk when Perry enters the room with a tray of drinks.

“Laura! Carmilla! Thank you so much for coming!” Perry says.

I walk up to her as she’s setting the tray down and wrap her in a hug.

“Perry, it’s so good to see you. Thank you for doing all of this.” I say.

“It’s not a problem, Laura. Really. I’m just happy that we’re all here to celebrate something so beautiful. Congratulations on ten years. I knew you two would make it,” she says.

“Thanks, Perry. Good to see you.” Carm interjects.

“Oh Carmilla, thank you for coming.  LaF and I are so glad you two could be here. We missed you.” Perry says before hugging Carmilla too.

“Everyone, I have prepared us some warm apple pie cocktails. Please enjoy these while I finish working on dinner. Thank you for coming!” Perry says and turn on her heels to go back to work. She has always loved cooking and hosting parties and I don’t think that will ever change, no matter how rich she may be.

“Come on, let’s go settle in.” I whisper to Carm. “Hey LaF, which room is ours?” I ask.

“Up the stairs, turn right, third room on the left.”

“Thanks!” I shout behind me as Carm and I are already on our way.

We climb the impressive double staircase that encases the full size Bösendorfer that occupies the majority of the foyer. It’s a shame that such an expensive piano is never used, but it’s still beautiful to look at. I probably wouldn’t place it directly underneath that giant chandelier but I’m sure LaF and Perry have everything insured. This place doesn’t even look like Perry decorated it. I’m pretty sure they just hired someone to put nice things in here, but it works. This house is incredible.

“This is it,” Carm says while opening the door to our room.

This room is incredible. The entire house is made of this beautiful, polished teak with all the lights in the house illuminating all the different colors in each grain of wood. This room is vastly different from the rest of the house; it’s a lot calmer, docile even. It is the perfect place to spend a weekend with my love.

The bottom half of the wall and the floors are done in a much darker shade of wood while the wallpaper on the top is a blue and white vintage floral pattern. The bed frame matches the wood in the rest of the room with the softest white down comforter I have ever laid my hands on. We drop our bags and take in our surroundings for a minute. Carm and I both have great jobs, but we can rarely afford luxuries like this. Most of our money goes towards what Katie needs and our everyday expenses. It’s been a long time since we were able to enjoy something as nice as this.

Carmilla leads me by my hand over to the bed and pulls me down to lay beside her. Our bodies fit together perfectly and we melt into each other like we have a million times before. This is honestly my favorite place. No matter how bad things would get or how stressed I may be, Carmilla knows how to hold me the right way to make it all disappear for a moment.

“So, what do you think the ginger twins have planned for the rest of the night?” Carmilla asks.

“I have no idea. I know we’ll be eating dinner soon but after that there’s no telling with Perry running things.”

“I wish we could just take our food to go and come back up here.” she says.

“I know, me too.”

“It’s just that we never really get to spend time alone anymore. Now that we’re able to get away for a vacation, there are ten other people in the house with us.”

I grab her face lightly and pull her into a chaste kiss.

“I’m sorry, Carmilla. I know this isn’t exactly the most ideal situation right now, but let’s try to make the best of it. We’ve been married for ten years and I love you more now than I ever have. That‘s something to celebrate and our friends want to share that with us. I promise the next time you and I both have a couple days off, we’re going to go on the vacation you really want.”

She pulls me back into a kiss but it’s anything but chaste or sweet. It starts out slow, but every movement of her lips are careful and deliberate. This kiss is screaming love and fire; it’s thick with desire and I can’t help but push back into her. I grab her shoulder and push so that I’m slightly on top of her, deepening the kiss while lacing our fingers together. We both pull back to breathe and we stare into each other’s eyes, chests heaving and foreheads pressed together.

“I love you.” I whisper onto her lips before connecting them with mine again.

“I love you too. I’m sorry. I’ll try harder.” she says in between short kisses.

“Let’s go have some dinner, get through the rest of the evening and we can come back here. Sound good?” I ask.

“As long as you’re with me.” she answers.

As we’re walking down the stairs, Carmilla’s arm around my waist, I can see that Danny and Betty have arrived. This ought to be good.

Carm and I make it into the living room where everyone else is and Danny spots me right away.

“Laura!” she shouts from across the room.

Carmilla and I navigate through the large room and over to the fireplace to find Danny and Betty sitting with Kirsch and Sarah Jane. Danny stands to greet us immediately and wraps her long arms around me in a hug and picks me up like she always has. I can’t see Carmilla right now, but I’m pretty sure she has a very unamused look on her face. Danny sets me back down and reaches to shake Carmilla’s hand. She makes me proud by extending her hand back to Danny with no hesitation and is very polite. I know that Danny and my wife don’t really get along after the whole college situation, but they at least try when they’re around me.

* * *

 

Danny and I dated throughout most of high school. She was great for what I wanted back then. We grew up in a small town and my dad wanted me to be with someone that would take care of me. Danny always protected me and made me feel special so she was perfect at the time. When we both started at Silas U after graduation, we started to grow apart. I began to grow as a person and become more independent and Danny didn’t really like that. I wanted to be reckless and make my own decisions while she already had our lives planned out. I didn’t want to live out her plan and we ended things pretty harshly. Not too long after, Danny and my roommate at the time (who is now her wife Betty) started dating and Betty moved out so that things wouldn’t be so awkward. That’s how Carmilla and I met.

The administration sent Carmilla to live in the vacant spot in my room. Her previous roommate begged for her to leave because she was horrible to live with and the girl was not wrong. Carmilla was absolutely filthy and even lazier. It took us a while to be able to tolerate each other. I would respond to her annoying habits with passive aggressive notes and she would increase whatever she was doing just to piss me off even further.

Eventually she became less repulsive and I became less annoying. She would make me cocoa and I would keep the fridge stocked with snacks and soda just for her. We started spending more time in the room by ourselves and away from our friends. It took us a long time to even acknowledge what we were feeling because I’m not even sure that we knew what was happening. All I knew is that it quickly got to the point where I couldn’t wait for my last class of the day to end so I could run back to room 307 and tell Carmilla all about my day. I knew she wasn’t interested in half the things I was talking about, but I had a feeling she was interested in anything I had to say.

One Thursday night, we were watching a movie on my bed like we usually did just about every night. About thirty minutes into _Kill Bill_ , her posture shifted and so did the electricity between us. Up until that moment, Carmilla was just my best friend. She was a best friend that I wanted to be around every second of the day, but to a naïve provincial nineteen-year-old, she was just my friend. We would always sit close together, our thighs and shoulders touching with the laptop resting on both our laps. That night Carmilla moved to where her leg was partially over mine and her torso was turned into me; our hands touching.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. I definitely couldn’t turn my head to look at her. I didn’t understand what I was feeling. It was like every nerve in my body was on fire and my stomach was melting. I thought I was in love with Danny back in high school, but she never once made me feel this way. When I was finally able to catch my breath, I slowly lean into her and I feel her fingers lace with mine. We watch the rest of the movie, without hardly moving a muscle. I was scared that if I moved that she would pull away and I think she felt the same way.

Once the movie finished, we pull our hands apart and wipe sweaty palms on my two-hundred thread count Target bed sheets. Neither of us knew what to say. We eventually decide to save the sequel for the next day and I fell asleep that night dreaming of holding her hand again. Within a month we were dating and everything was perfect. I became addicted to her touch. Every time we were apart I ached for the feeling of her skin on mine. She took care of me but didn’t smother me. We fell in love.

A year later, we had a huge fight. Carmilla had been spending a lot of time at work and I was feeling neglected. We had a huge blow out in our room and I went to a Zeta party to drink it off. Fast forward two keg stands, six rounds of beer pong and a couple body shots later, I was completely trashed and in a pretty bad position. I ended up on the couch in the living room and just waiting for anyone to take me home because I couldn’t take myself.

I eventually texted Carmilla a simple “help come get me” and passed out on the couch. When I came to, Danny was sitting next to me and shaking me awake. I remember her saying something about Betty dumping her but I was way too drunk to really care about anything she had to say. When Carmilla came into the room, Danny stood up to confront her about letting me come to the party alone. They ended up arguing because Danny said something about how she could take better care of me. I don’t know who was pushed first, but they beat the crap out of each other that night. I still don’t know who technically won the fight, but I went home with Carmilla so there’s that.

I spent most of the next few days in the room, taking care of Carm. She had a few broken ribs, two horrible black eyes and some cuts around her mouth and jaw. I felt so terrible that she was hurt so badly because of me but Carmilla was happy. She was so proud to defend my honor and her love for me. Like I said, she had been gone a lot for work and I guess I just needed her to show me how much she cared. I’m not saying that I condone her behavior by any means, but I was pretty glad she did it. I did call Betty to see if Danny was ok. I guess the fight scared them both because they got back together and Betty was taking care of Danny so at least I didn’t have to worry about that too.

Shortly after the physical wounds healed, we all had a talk and tried to heal the emotional wounds as well. I told Danny that Carmilla was everything to me and she needed to respect that if she ever wanted to see me again. They apologized and we all moved on as much as we could in this awkward situation.

Carm and I lived together all through the rest of university. We spent our time going to classes (mostly), seeing friends (occasionally) and the rest of the time locking ourselves in our dorm room to map out every part of each other’s bodies. I know my only real comparison is Danny, but sex with Carmilla is simply unfathomable. She knows every part of me that she needs to kiss and touch to ignite the fire inside of me and I realized back then that I can burn only for her. I knew by her senior and my junior year that I couldn’t live without her and the rest was history.

When she graduated, we got an apartment off campus together and she started her internship with a local art dealer while I finished school. The place was tiny and gross, but it was ours. Shortly after we moved in, things fell into place rather quickly. Carmilla saved up to have dinner catered to an art gallery she had recently worked with one night. The paintings being displayed at the time were modern interpretations of french impressionism by local artists; they were truly exquisite. The gallery had a huge skylight and the stars seemed to be especially bright that night. After a perfect meal, she took me outside and we walked along a path illuminated by paper lights. We talked about our dreams and the love that we shared.

Once we got to the end of the path, I knew exactly what was going on. There was a blanket set out in a clearing in the trees with strawberries and champagne waiting for us. I played along because I realized just how much work Carmilla had put into the evening. We watched the stars while feeding each other strawberries and kissing champagne flavored lips. Carmilla proposed to me that night and our lives have been a whirlwind ever since. Marrying Carmilla and having a beautiful daughter with her is more than I could have ever wanted out of my life. I don’t know how things could get any better.

Once Carm and I were married and Danny and Betty got engaged, things started to calm down between all of us. We’re all living our separate lives but are still able to be friends. It’s amazing how time can heal wounds like that. I know that Carm and Danny wouldn’t tolerate each other if it weren’t for me, but I love them both for trying.

* * *

 

“Danny, how are you?” I ask after she puts me down.

“I’m great Laura, Betty and I are really happy these days. How are you?” she asks.

“Things are perfect.” I wrap my arm around Carmilla’s waist to make her feel a little better. “Carm and I are happier than ever and Katie is growing up to be a strong little woman.”

“That’s so great, Laura. I’m so happy to hear that.” she says to me. “How’s it going, Carmilla?”

“Oh, I’m good. Thanks for asking.” Carm responds.

Just when the conversation is beginning to die down, Perry calls into the dining room for dinner. When we sit down, she and LaF bring us a first course of this chilled peach soup with goat cheese. With the sangria I was drinking, the combination of the flavors was almost overwhelming. I tasted the sweet of the fruit, the salt of the cheese, the tanginess of the yellow pepper and the acidity of the vinegar. It’s delicious, don’t get me wrong, but if this is only the appetizer I’m not sure that my simple taste buds can handle the main course.

I’m relieved to see that Perry has prepared my favorite beef wellington with rough cut potatoes and asparagus. She really knows that the way to my heart is through my stomach in the form of good food. While we all tear into our meals, LaF asks everyone to share what’s new in each other’s lives.

Danny is quick to tell the group of her promotion from street deputy to narcotics detective. Betty added that her dental practice had been expanding and she gained another twenty patients. They seem to be doing really well and I’m so happy to hear it.

Kirsch shared about him and Sarah Jane moving into a new home. Since they had the boys, Kirsch had been working really hard to move up the ladder at the insurance firm he worked for so he could provide a better life for them. It took a couple years but he’s doing very well at his job so Sarah Jane was able to make the change to be a stay at home mom and they couldn’t be happier.

LaF shared the latest news about their work in the pharmaceutical field while bragging about Perry’s latest play being picked up by a producer in London and it being in the pre-production stages. Perry is trying to be modest like always, but LaF is quick to tell us all that this is the best work she’s ever written and this could really be her big break.

Will tells us of his promotion to site foreman for the construction company he works for. Will has been sober for more than five years now and Natalie is a lot of the reason he straightened himself out. He ended up dropping out of Silas because his gambling habit took over his life and he couldn’t afford to take care of himself let alone pay tuition. He started self-medicating with drugs and alcohol to numb the fear of owing people so much and he overdosed one night. Once he recovered and got out of ICU, Natalie gave him and ultimatum of her or his self-destructive lifestyle. He wrestled with it for a while, but he ultimately chose Natalie. She helped him get clean and away from all the negative people in his life. They got engaged a while back and appear to still be very happy together.

Theo and Mel both work with Will and that’s actually how we all met. A few years ago, we were all able to see each other a little more than we are now. We would all get together on the weekends to eat, have drinks, and just enjoy the little time of our twenties that we had left. Theo joined Will’s construction company as an architect and brought Mel along since she specializes in carpentry. They started hanging around our group of friends since they were new in town and they’re nice enough so it’s all good. They didn’t have much to share except for some of Mel’s craft furniture was bought by Celine Dion for her summer home. That’s actually a pretty big deal.

Carmilla and I shared about how well Katie is doing in school and in her music lessons. She just performed at a piano competition for kids her age and placed second in the county. It’s something that she really loves to do and I’m just glad that Carm and I can provide that for her. Carmilla tells about the big deal she just signed for a client. She essentially got him an original Matisse for the price of a Bob Ross. Carmilla has always been good at sweet talking and it really helps her be successful in her line of work. I tell everyone about the recent success of my business. When I first started, I was working with two other women and we did everything ourselves. Now, I have more than twenty employees with well over a hundred clients. We are one of the most respected landscape architecture businesses in the area and it’s nice to have a career that lets me to work from home most of the time. It allows me to spend time with my family and still provide for them.

Once we finish our meals and the conversation fades, we decide to return to the living room where it’s more comfortable and have our dessert there. There is a large U-shaped leather couch facing the fireplace and most everyone sits there. Perry and LaFontaine busy themselves with serving everyone key lime cheesecake and coffee. Carm and I settle into a large chair closer to the fire while Kirsch and Sarah Jane sit on the rug right in front of it. This is honestly kind of nice; seeing our friends and just enjoying each other’s company without having to worry about our responsibilities or the outside world in general.

We’re all laughing about this time in our early twenties when we got drunk and broke into the high school gym for a drunken round of H-O-R-S-E. Carmilla was a little more aware of the danger we put ourselves in. If we would have gotten caught, there went our scholarships and possibly worse. She ended up dragging me out of there, telling Kirsch and everyone else to ‘fuck off’ and it was just in time. The cops showed up very shortly after and everyone else barely got away.

“Aw, come on Carmilla. Admit you were scared that night and I’ll drop it forever. I swear.” Kirsch says.

“I was not scared. I just knew that something bad would happen and I wanted to get Laura out of there.”

“You were scared and you still won’t admit it. Whatever. We all know I would have won that game anyway.” he says.

“Whatever you say, beefcake.” Carmilla gets up and walks into the kitchen. When I get up to follow her, she’s nowhere to be found. After a few minutes of searching, I find that she went outside the back door of the house and into the freezing cold.

I open the door and I instantly can’t breathe. It’s not snowing right now and the air is still. I feel the cold down to my bones and it hurts, but I need to make sure Carm’s ok.

“Hey, what happened in there?” I say as I walk up behind her.

“I’m sorry, I just can’t stand it when he brings that up. He’s not going to make me feel bad for protecting you.”

She turns to face me and sees that I’m shaking. She opens her jacket so I can wrap my arms around her and she bundles me up in her arms.

“I know, and you shouldn’t. What we did was stupid and you got me out of there. Kirsch is just a dumb ass that is just trying to relive the glory days.” I say.

“Yea, well his dumb ass can do that somewhere else. This weekend is about you and me. That big puppy in there needs to remember that.”

I look up at her to kiss her and she leans in the rest of the way. When she pulls back, her eyes flutter open and she jumps back looking almost scared.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Do you see that?” she says, her eyes squinting.

“What?”

“Over there. Behind that tree.” She turns me around and points into the dark forest.

“I don’t see anything.” I say.

“Yea, it was probably nothing. Sorry. Let’s go inside before we freeze to death.”

We walk back into the house and shake off the cold, rubbing each other’s arms until warmth returned to our limbs. When we joined the rest of the group, Kirsch was ready to apologize and Carmilla gladly accepted. We sit for a while longer and finish up the rest of the cheesecake before everyone says good night and goes to their separate rooms.

I take a shower first while Carmilla calls my dad to check on Katie. It takes a good fifteen minutes before Carm hangs up and comes into the bathroom. She brushes her teeth and flosses while I finish conditioning my hair so we can trade places. She doesn’t let me go before helping me dry off while kissing every inch of my bare shoulders before taking a quick shower herself.

When she comes out of the bathroom, I’m sitting up in bed waiting for her. I decided a long time ago that I never want to go to bed unless Carmilla is right next to me. I couldn’t sleep without her if I wanted to so it’s pointless to even try. She throws on a tank top and underwear before climbing in bed with me and I feel like I’ve been waiting days for this. We spent so much time traveling and having to entertain guests that I’m truly exhausted. She’s holding me close to her chest, running her fingers up and down my back while I hum softly into her skin. In moments like these I always think “The Light” by Sara Bareilles. It was playing in the background the first time Carm told me she loved me so that song means a lot to us. When my favorite part comes up I begin to sing to her under my breath.

_“You’re the air in my breath filling up my love soaked lungs_  
_Such a beautiful mess intertwined and overrun_  
_Nothing better than this knowing that the storm can come_  
_You feel just like the sun_  
_Just like the sun”_

Before I can even take a breath to continue into the chorus, she pulls me up and into a kiss. I shift so I’m lying on top of her, with my arms underneath her shoulders. She runs her hands up and down my back while we kiss each other like it was the first time. I eventually pull back and lay down beside her because we really are both very tired. She wraps her arms around me and we fall asleep intertwined and overrun with love for each other.

* * *

 

The next morning, I wake up to the piercing light reflecting off the thick blanket of snow and into our room. I get up to close the curtains and I roll back to find Carmilla awake and waiting for me.

“Thanks for that. It’s too early to deal with natural light.” Carm says.

“You’re welcome. Good morning.” I say before leaning over for a kiss.

“Mornin’, Cupcake. We don’t have to get up yet, do we?” she asks.

“Nope, we can probably get away with sleeping in a bit.” I answer.

“I never said we were going to be sleeping now did I?” she says, before flipping me over so that she’s straddling my hips.

I can’t fight the giggle that comes pouring out but my mood quickly changes when she grinds her hips down into me. I slide my hands from her knees to her hips, pulling down on her underwear with my thumbs and pushing the rest of my fingers under her shirt. She rolls her body down to kiss me while I slide my hands around and up her back before breaking the kiss to pull her shirt off. I flip us over so that I’m on top of her, kissing at her neck and collar bones. She’s pulling my shirt up with one hand while the other slides down my underwear to grip my ass. I sit up, taking my shirt off slowly while I grind my hips over and over. Her hands move up my stomach and grab onto my breasts. I lean down into a kiss and push my hand down her stomach and in between her legs to find her hot and wet; ready for me. We start rocking together, her hand finding its way in between my legs and we’re finding a good rhythm. She’s got her other hand around my back, holding me close and I’m holding on to her shoulders and biting down when it becomes too much. We’re moving together, writhing and panting as one and I’m getting close when the door flies open.

Carmilla instantly pulls the sheets over us to us before firing some choice words at whoever dared to open that door without knocking first and just like the old days, it’s LaF coming through the door unannounced.

“Laura. Carmilla. I’m so sorry to barge in on you…” they say out of breath.

“Yea, well you should be sorry. We were obviously busy.” Carm says.

“I know. I know. It’s just…”

“LaF, what is it?” I ask.

“There’s something wrong. Can you guys come downstairs?” they say.

“Sure, give us ten minutes.” I say.

LaF nods and leaves without saying a word.

“Well, it’s good to see that things haven’t changed.” Carm laughs.

“Yea, I guess we should have expected to happen sometime this weekend.”

“To be continued…” she says before kissing me and climbing out of bed.

We get dressed in a few minutes and make our way down the stairs and into the living room. Everyone is sitting on the couch around Kirsch and he has his head buried in his hand while he’s rocking back and forth.

“What’s going on?” I ask tentatively.

LaF comes up to me and says “Sarah Jane is gone.”

“What do you mean gone?” Carmilla says.

“I don’t know. Kirsch said she was just gone when he woke up this morning. Their car is still here, all her stuff is here. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

“Oh my god, did something happen to her?” I ask.

“I don’t think so. None of us heard anything. Did you?”

Carm and I shake our heads. We went to bed pretty early and we wouldn’t have heard anything anyway.

“So, what are we going to do?” Carm asks.

“We were waiting on you two so we can search the house and grounds for her before we call the police.”

“Count us in. We’ll be right back.” I say.

I walk with Carmilla up the stairs and back to our room to get dressed more appropriately to go outside in this weather.

“What do you think happened?” I ask her.

“I honestly have no idea, Laura. Let’s just find her and then we can figure things out.” she says.

We dress in thermal underwear, jeans, a sweater, a heavy coat and boots before joining everyone downstairs. They were already dressed and ready to go. We all started outside by looking in each of the cars and the area surrounding the house. Usually we would be able to track any footprints in the snow but a thick coat of fresh powder fell overnight so it covered up any hope of doing that. There are no signs of S.J. leaving the house during the night so we decide to all go back in and search the house again.

After shedding out coats and boots, I devise a plan for everyone to search the house in zones to ensure that we cover as much ground as possible while being very thorough. I’m searching through the linen closets when I hear Carmilla calling for me in the kitchen.

“Hey, find something?” I ask when I get to her.

“Laura, come here.” She says blankly.

“Is that what I think-“

“No, it can’t be,” I say.

On the floor in front of the door that leads into the basement, there’s a dime size drop of blood. It looks like it had been there for at least a few hours and my mind can only go to one place.

“We can’t tell anyone yet. Not until we’re sure.” she says.

I open the door to the basement and flip on the light. I don’t hear or see anything down there so I grab Carmilla’s hand, step inside and close the door behind us. I know this is probably really stupid, but I don’t want to tell Kirsch that I think his wife is hurt until I know for sure what’s going on. We walk slowly down the stairs, looking into every square inch of the room that we can see. Once we get to the bottom of the stairs, we’re standing in a cold empty room. LaF and Perry don’t ever come down here so there are only a few boxes stacked in the corner. The far side of the room is still covered in shadows. Carmilla and I search around for another light switch and I wish I would have never found it.

Once the light flickers on, I see the largest pool of blood I have ever seen in my life. That is far too much blood for anyone to lose and be able to survive it. We both knew in that moment that something terrible happened to Sarah Jane in the basement of this house. She bled to death while we were all sleeping and probably wondered why no one was there to save her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura and Carmilla tell everyone what that found. They make a plan of how they're going to get out of this but everything goes terribly wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. Parts of it were really difficult to write because it made me have feelings. Please remember that I adore these characters and none of this is personal. If you can't stomach gore very well, then this probably isn't the fic for you. However, if you love both Carmilla and the horror genre, this is going to be your jam.
> 
> Huge thanks to the lovely youredoingitforjesus for listening to my ideas about this and being my beta. I couldn't have done this without you.

“We have to tell the others,” Carm says.

“I- I know,” I manage to get out before we turn to run.

“LaF! Danny! Everyone in here!” I shout once we get to the top of the stairs. We’re standing there trying to catch our breath when everyone comes running into the room.

“Did you find her? Betty asks.

“No, we didn’t.” Carm says.

“So why did you call us all in here?” LaF asks.

“Ok, we did find something in the basement but we don’t know who it belongs to for sure,” I answer.

“What did you find, Laura?” Kirsch asks.

“Carm was looking in the kitchen when she found this in front of the door.” I say, pointing down to the dried blood spot on the floor.

Kirsch grabs his head and cries out and everyone else just gasps in shock.

“Kirsch, we don’t know that this blood is hers for sure. Will, I want you to take Kirsch outside to cool down.” I say.

“I’m fine. I don’t need to-“

“Kirsch, trust me. Just go with Will and we’ll figure things out,” I insist. Will ushers Kirsch out of the room and everyone turns back to me for the rest of the story.

“Laura, what’s down there?” Danny asks.

“Come with me.” I say as Carm and I lead them down into the basement. Once we get to the bottom and I point out the crime scene in the corner. Everyone rightfully panics.

“Oh dear God no. She has to be dead. Sarah Jane, no!” Perry cries.

“What the fuck happened last night? How could this happen?” Danny yells.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but we need to call the police right now.” Natalie says.

 “Ok, LaF and Perry, you two go call the police and get them here immediately. Danny, Betty, Mel, Theo, you go make sure this house is secure. Do whatever it takes. Make sure that everything is locked and nobody can get in. Natalie, you go check on Will and Kirsch and Carm and I will keep searching for Sarah Jane. Everyone understand what they’re supposed to do?” I ask. Everyone nods and runs off to take care of their specific tasks.

Carmilla and I are tearing apart the house, looking for any signs of S.J.

“Laura? Can you come into the library please?” I hear Perry call from the other room.

“What’s going on?” I ask after Carm and I close the door behind us.

“I appears that our phones and internet are down.” Perry says.

“Did you try your cell?” Carm asks.

“Well, that’s the thing. Cell phones don’t work all the way out here. No one’s going to get a signal.” LaF says.

“So what are supposed to do then?” Carm asks.

“There’s a sheriff station about fifteen miles down the main road heading west. Someone could drive there and bring help back to us.”

“Good. We’ll go. Just make sure that everyone comes back inside and stays locked in. We still don’t know what happened here.” I say.

“Will do. You guys be careful, ok?” LaF says.

I nod at them before running to get the keys to the SUV. We put our coats and boots back on before heading out to find help. We scrape the ice off the windows the best we can and climb inside. When Carm turns the key, nothing happens. She tries again and the car is just dead. We get out and get the keys to Will’s car from him. Carm turns the key and finds the same result. Dead car.

I pop the hood to try to see what’s wrong. Will and Theo come over to help us and we discover that all the spark plugs are missing from the engine. I run over to our rental, pop the hood and find more missing spark plugs. What the fuck is going on?

I ask everyone in the house for their keys. We check every single car at the house and they were all missing spark plugs. Upon closer inspection, Will also noticed that the fuel lines on each car were cut so there’s no chance any of us are going anywhere soon and I’m sure that this is intentional. Someone sabotaged our vehicles to make sure we couldn’t leave.

LaFontaine walks with Will around the house to get any tools they may have in the shed when I hear Will calling for me. I run over to see what they were yelling about and see that the phone lines have been cut from the outside.

“What the hell is going on here you guys?” LaF asks.

“I don’t know.” I say. “We need to work on getting out of here but we need a better plan first. Let’s go back inside.”

We call for everyone to go back in with us and we congregate in the living room.

* * *

 

“Ok everyone, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but something bad is happening here. I’m not sure yet, but I don’t think that what happened to Sarah Jane will the end of it. I’m really sorry Kirsch, but we can’t find her. I know that everyone is in shock but we need to get our emotions in check. Someone disabled all the vehicles and also cut the phone lines. We need to find a way to get help.” I say.

A few people start crying and everyone pulls their phones out to try and get a signal.

“Can anyone can get through to 911?” I ask.

Everyone is pacing around the room, holding their phones as high as they can but it’s no use. There aren’t any cell towers in this part of Alaska and we’re better off sending a carrier pigeon than trying to send a text.

“Ok, our best option is for a couple of us to hike to the sheriff station. LaF, you can get a map together, right?” I ask.

“Sure, give me a few minutes.” they say.

“Ok, who wants to go?”

Danny, Betty, Theo and Will step forward. That should be more than enough so I won’t need to go. That’s great because I feel like I’m needed here anyway. They dress in thick layers to fight the freezing wind, grab some water and the map and head out the door. A minute or so after I close the door behind them, I hear blood curdling screams coming from outside.

Without thinking, I run out the door and everyone in the house is not far behind me. I’m following the sounds of whimpering and fresh footsteps in the snow and that’s when I see it. Sarah Jane’s body is lying in the snow. Her stomach has been cut open and her insides are spilling out, turning the snow a bright red. Behind her, written into the snow with blood is the word “MINE.”

When I hear the crowd of people running up behind me, I take action.

“Will, do not let him come over here!” I say.

 ** _“What is it!? DON’T YOU FUCKING LIE TO ME LAURA!”_** Kirsch screams while Will and Theo drag him away.

Danny is running around, looking for any signs of the person who did this. Carm came up to me and is holding onto me while I look around in shock. Natalie is throwing up behind a tree while Betty tries to console her. Perry took off running and LaF chased after her. Kirsch is completely breaking down inside the house, throwing furniture and screaming; trying anything to get past the other guys so he can see his wife.

“Danny!” I yell and she comes running. “We need to wrap up this body and get it inside.”

“Laura, we need to preserve the evidence here.” she says.

“I’m not sure this body will still be here if we leave it.”

“You’re right.” she says.

“Ok, you take Betty inside to grab some sheets and come back out here. Got it?” I ask.

“No problem.” Danny runs over, makes sure that Natalie is ok before taking Betty with her to get the sheets.

“Carm, I need your help.”

“Name it.”

“I need you to go find LaF and Perry. We need them to help fortify the house and they took off.”

“I don’t want to leave you, Laura. It’s not safe.”

“I can take care of myself. The quicker you find them, the quicker we can get back inside.” I say.

“Alright, but please be careful. Make sure someone is with you.” she says.

“I will. Hurry back.”

“I love you, Laur.”

“I love you too.” I say before kissing her quickly.

She runs off to go find LaF and Perry. I remembered what Danny said about preserving evidence so I take out my phone to snap a few pictures of Sarah Jane’s body before we move it. When we get out of this, I want to make sure we have enough to put the person who’s doing this away forever.

Danny and Betty come running up with some sheets and we quickly wrap S.J. up. We’re carrying her up the steps to the front door when I see Carmilla come sprinting around the corner of the house with LaF and Perry right behind her.

 ** _“INSIDE! EVERYONE GET INSIDE NOW!!!”_** she screams.

Everyone runs around us and into the door in a full panic. Danny and I are trying to be careful with the body but Carmilla just shoves us in the door and we fall to the floor, landing in a pile of bodies both dead and alive. She slams the door shut and locks it.

“Someone help me!” she screams while dragging the couch over in front of the door.

“Carmilla! What is going on?” I ask.

**_“JUST HELP ME!”_ **

Danny and I help her drag as much furniture in front of the door as we can.

“We have to get the other doors. Go!” Carmilla says.

Everyone that’s able breaks apart and blocks every potential entrance we can think of.

“Carmilla, will you tell me what the hell is going on?” I ask.

“Laura, I saw him. We saw him.”

“You saw who?”

“When I went to go find LaFontaine and Perry he just appeared from behind the shed. One moment the three of us are alone and the next he’s just...I turned around for just a second because I heard Kirsch yelling and when I turn back to talk to Perry, he was standing ten feet behind them. He’s wearing all black from head to toe, including a mask. He had a machete dripping with what actually looked like blood in his hand and he started to swing it gently when I began to back up.”

“Oh my God…” I stutter.

“All I did was whisper _‘run’_ to LaF and Perry, that’s when this guy lost his mind. He started growling and came running at us like a mad man. We took off running but we barely made it, Laura. That was too close.” Carm says, pulling me into a hug.

“It’s ok, we’re inside and we’re safe.” I say to her, but I’m not sure that we really are safe.

“What are we going to do? She asks.

“I don’t know, but we have to do something.”

* * *

 

After everyone finishes checking the doors, we gather in the living room to make a plan.

“Carmilla, you need to tell them all what you just saw.” I say to her.

“Well, there’s a man outside with a machete that seems to want us all dead.” she says.

“Are you fucking serious?” Danny shouts.

“Yes, I’m serious Xena. I wouldn’t make this shit up.” Carm says.

“How do we know for sure?” Danny says.

“Danny, stop. I saw him too. LaFontaine and I were there and we saw the man too. There’s someone out there and we’re not safe.” Perry says before falling into LaF’s shoulder and sobbing.

“Ok, so what now what do we do?” Mel asks.

“We need to be prepared for anything. We need to fortify the house, especially this room because we should all sleep in the same room if we’re going to be stuck here. It will be much safer that way. We need to gather anything can be used as a weapon against this guy. He completely cut off our communication with the outside world and is trying to scare us into believing that leaving would be more dangerous than staying inside. We need to be able to protect ourselves from further attack while we figure out a plan of how to get some help. We are strongest in numbers, so everyone must stay in groups of at least three.”

I look around the room and a lot of people are crying. I understand what they’re feeling, I really do but we don’t have time for this right now. Right now my main concern is getting my wife and I out of here safely and home to our little girl. I just don’t have enough brain space for emotional vulnerability at the moment.

“LaF, Perry, you two go get pillows and blankets for us to sleep on. Theo, Mel, Kirsch and Natalie, you guys keep securing the doors and windows. Our goal is to keep this guy out at all costs. If you think you’ve blocked something enough, double it. Danny and Betty, you help Carm and I look around and bring back any weapons we can find. We’ll all regroup in fifteen minutes no matter what. Got it?” I say.

Everyone is still in shock so they just sit there.

“Does everyone understand?” I ask, raising my voice a little this time.

Everyone suddenly jumps up and springs into action. We can talk about this later, but right now we need to arm ourselves before anyone else gets hurt. None of us know what this guy is capable of so I don’t want to take any chances. We need to figure out how we can get some help, but that will only work if we can defend ourselves long enough for the help to get here.

We’re tearing through the house, trying to find anything that could potentially cause massive damage to a human body. Everyone is working is near silence because it’s better to concentrate on the task at hand than be swallowed in fear. This was supposed to be one of the best weekends of our lives, not the last weekend we would ever have.

After the fifteen minutes are up, everyone meets back in the living room so we can count up our inventory. LaF and Perry managed to gather enough blankets and pillows to keep all of Canada warm, Will assured me that every entrance to the house is secured and we gathered a pretty big pile of weapons for everyone to choose from. I arm myself with a baseball bat and tuck a hatchet and knife into my belt for good measure. I can enhance the bat a little later but I want to make sure everyone is alright first.

Everyone in the group is grabbing weapons and swinging them around to test them out. Carmilla takes this old sword that LaF had hanging in their office. Danny grabs an axe and looks like she’s ready to kill anyone that walks through the door. She feels helpless since she left her service pistol at home, thinking that she wouldn’t need it on vacation but she looks more confident now. LaF, Perry, Betty and Natalie all grab a knife, Will and Mel both grab a large steel pipe while Kirsch and Theo settle on a hammer and a knife each.

Once we all get out things in order I sit everyone down on the couch to figure out a plan.

“Ok, so we need to stay alive long enough to go get some help. We need to make sure that this guy can’t get back in no matter what. That means-“

“Wait a minute. Not to cause any problems but who put you in charge?” Theo asked.

“I guess no one did.” I answer.

“So why are we all sitting here listening to you?” he fired back.

“Look, Laura here is more trained for something like this than any of us. Shut your ass up and listen to what she has to say. She’s our best chance of making it out of here.” Carm interrupts.

I look at her and she gives me a half smile. God I love her.

“What do you mean she’s trained?” Mel asks.

“I grew up on a military compound with my dad. My mom was killed during a violent robbery at the bank she worked for when I was a little girl. It just destroyed my dad and he lost the little bit of trust he had left in the world. So, one day we just picked up and moved to the compound and that’s where we lived until I was thirteen. Most of my childhood was spent learning hand to hand combat and weapons techniques. I also became fairly good at hunting and tracking since we had to provide a lot of our own food. This skills aren’t really useful as a wife and mother, but I’m kind of glad to know them right now.” I say.

“Well, I vote that Laura is in charge.” LaF interjects.

“Me too!” Kirsch says.

“Alright then, unless anyone has any more problems with my wife organizing this whole thing, then let’s listen to her plan and just try to stay alive.” Carm says and gives me a reassuring look.

To be honest, this is kind of the last position I want to be in. I don’t want to be responsible for saving all my dearest friends and the love of my life from some crazy person. I hate that I’ve always been a natural leader and I have once again stepped up to a task that I’m not sure that I can handle.

“Ok, well we need to survey our supplies. Gather any flashlights, some string and anything that will make noise. We need to trap all the entrances of the house so if he comes through a door or window, we’ll hear him coming. We need any spare lumber, nails, screws and a drill. We can create more weapons and board up the windows in this room. It would also be a good idea to bring food and water in here in case we get cut off from the kitchen. Everyone understand?”

I get a few verbal responses but mostly nods.

“Look, I’m really sorry that we’re going through all this. I know you’re scared and I am too, but we just don’t have time to dwell on our fear. I know that’s hard to hear but it’s our reality. We don’t know who this guy is or what he’s capable of. The moment we let our guard down is the moment he’s got us. Kirsch, I’m sorry about Sarah Jane. I’m sorry that we couldn’t save her but she would want us to fight don’t you think?”

“Hell yea she would.” he says, wiping his tears.

“Exactly! So we need to be strong right now. Fuck that voice inside of you that tell you to run. Fuck the voice that tells you you’re too weak. We can do this. We have to fight out way out of here and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Let’s get everything done in groups and we’ll meet back here. Let’s go!” I shout.

LaF takes Carm and into their office to get some supplies. They had a lot of nylon twine and a ton of metal instruments and containers that we can tie to the doors and windows as a make shift alarm. We run back to the front door and start moving pieces of furniture so we can work on set the first one.

“Hold on, I need a minute. Laura, can we talk?” Carm asks.

She pulls me by my arm into the living room while LaF continued to work on the door. We could all see each other but LaF wouldn’t be able to hear us.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Laura, what the hell are we doing here?” she asks.

“Carm, I really don’t know. Sarah Jane is dead and I know that we’re in danger too. We need to go get help but we can’t until we know it’s safe to leave.”

Carm pulls me into a tight hug, squeezing me until I can hardly breathe. Once I feel her begin start to shake, I start crying too. We stand there for a minute, tugging at each other’s shirts and sobbing on each other’s shoulders because we realized in that moment how dangerous this situation really is. All I want is to see Katie again. We have to be strong and fight for Katie.

We pull back, wipe each other’s tears and set out to finish what we started. We make our way around the house with LaF, stringing tin can alarms all around the house, nailing any windows shut that we came across. Betty, Natalie and Perry gathered just about everything they could manage to carry from the kitchen and set up make shift cots for everyone.

We all finish our respective duties and return to the living room shortly after 7 pm. The sun is starting to set and we need to prepare to get through the night safely. I figure, the safest thing we could do would be to board up the windows in the room and have people take shifts to guard every entrance to the room the throughout the night.

We get all the wood planks, nails and hammers together. I have Danny, Will and Mel guard the room while Betty, Kirsch and Theo work on the windows. They grab the sturdiest planks they can find and start hammering away into the window frame. I’m drilling some screws into the end of my bat when I hear a window break. I’m about to yell at whoever broke the window when I realize that something’s very wrong. All I see is a dark figure pulling Betty out the window by her hair, cutting her to shreds in the process. Betty is screaming for us but by the time anyone gets to the window it’s too late. The guy has her out in the yard too far away for us to reach from in here.

Danny runs to the front door, throwing chairs and boxes behind her as if they were weightless. Betty is screaming her name while we all try to help Danny unblock the door. We finally get the door open and rush outside with our weapons in hand to find Betty on her knees in the snow with the man’s hunting knife to her throat. Danny takes a step forward and the man just shakes his head and tightens his grip on Betty’s hair, causing her to cry out in pain. After a few moments, Danny can’t take it anymore and she lunges off the steps. She slips on the ice and falls just as the man in the black mask says “MINE” and cuts Betty’s throat open in less than a second. Betty grabs her neck, falling to the snow and gasping for air. There’s an endless stream blood pouring out of her and there’s nothing we can do.

The man runs around the side of the house and Danny rushes over to Betty. Kirsch, Will and Mel run to chase the killer while the rest of us go see if we can help Betty. Danny is holding her hands to her wife’s neck, trying desperately to stop the bleeding to no avail. Her carotid artery had been severed and it will probably be less than a minute or two before she’s gone. With every pump of Betty’s weakening heart, another gush of blood would come rushing through Danny’s fingers. It doesn’t take much longer for Betty to stop breathing and she’s suddenly still.

Danny is screaming “No! We never got our chance! I promised to protect you and I failed you!” while pumping down at her chest, trying desperately to revive her.

Carmilla pulls Danny back and they fall into red snow. Danny is screaming and kicking to get free, but Carmilla is just holding her. She eventually calms down and hugs Carmilla back, crying into her neck and saying Betty’s name over and over. I send the others to get some sheets and they come back around the same time that Kirsch, Will and Mel return. LaF is helping me wrap up the body when I notice that Kirsch and Mel are carrying Will by his arms.

“Ok, everyone inside!” I yell. “LaF, help me.”

Everyone gets inside and we put Betty’s body in the basement with Sarah Jane’s. When we come back up the stairs, Perry and Natalie are in a panic over Will’s injuries.

“What happened?” I ask.

“Well, we caught up to the guy or maybe he wanted us to. I don’t know. We were running after him full speed and he just suddenly stopped and turned around. Will was running so fast that he couldn’t just stop. Will ran straight into his knife. He threw Will on the ground and stabbed him again before I pounded the guy. I think I stuck him with my knife too but I’m not sure.” Kirsch says.

“It’s great you guys were able to get away. Thank you, Kirsch.”

Natalie is helping Perry press gauze into Will’s wounds and I walk over to see how he’s doing. Will is unconscious but Perry assures us that he still has a decent pulse.

“Natalie, I’m so sorry.” I say to her.

“I know, Laura. I know.” she answers between heavy sobs.

“Ok, let’s see how this looks.” Perry says before lifting up on the gauze. What looks like a gallon of blood comes pouring out of him and onto the couch. Natalie screams and falls backward onto the floor. Mel comes over to pick her up and I help Perry try to gain control of the bleeding. After a while, the bleeding slowed down enough to clean his wounds and wrap them. I don’t know if he will make it or not, but at least he’s alive right now.

We manage to board up the rest of the windows without incident. LaF even stretched plastic over the broken one to try and keep the cold out. Perry and Danny keep busy by making us something to eat in the kitchen while everyone else keeps guard of both rooms. Natalie hasn’t moved from the couch with Will since we bandaged him up. He’s starting to develop a slight fever and his stomach is distended. It doesn’t look really good for him but I don’t want to be the one to break that to his wife just yet. Luckily, LaF has plenty of pharmaceutical pain killers in their office so Will is comfortable enough for now.

Danny and Perry serve us our dinner and we all eat in relative silence. Everyone is so afraid that we really don’t know what to say. Every noise we hear makes us all jump and just the suspense of not knowing what’s going to happen next is driving us mad.

“William, what the fuck are you talking about!?” Natalie screams from the couch.

“Natalie, please.” He whispers.

“No! I thought we were done with all this. Now people are dead and you might die too, all because you can’t keep your shit together Will!”

“What’s going on?” Danny asks.

“Tell them Will. They have a right to know too.” Natalie says.

“This is all my fault.” he admits.

“The fuck are you talking about bro?” Kirsch says.

“I owe some really bad people a lot of money. I never thought they would find me all the way out here. I’m so sorry.” Will cries.

“So you mean to tell me that my wife was murdered and Kirsch’s too because of a fucking gambling debt!?” Danny screams.

“I’M SORRY!” Will yells and rolls over into the couch.

Danny lunges at him to probably finish the work the killer started. Carmilla and I hold her back long enough for her to calm down.

A few hours of awkward silence pass and everyone is getting exhausted. Two of us lost their wives today and we all lost two very good friends. Mel, Theo, and Kirsch take the first watch while the rest of us try to get some sleep.

Carmilla and I are on the couch, her back to the cushion and me holding onto her for dear life. I know I told everyone that we don’t have to be scared but I’m fucking terrified. I have seen more blood today than I have in my entire life and it’s the blood of some of my closest friends. I haven’t been able to save them and I’m scared that it’s only going to get worse.

Carmilla is running her fingers through my hair while I softly cry into her chest. I don’t really want everyone else to see me like this so I’m glad Carmilla is able to shield me from that. I’m able to finally relax after an hour or so and we both drift to sleep.

* * *

 

I wake up to the sound of Kirsch screaming at the top of his lungs. I can’t understand what he’s saying but I fall off the couch, grab my weapon and try to go find him. When I get into the kitchen, I see him on the floor with the killer on top of him. This guy is stabbing Kirsch over and over again in the stomach, pulling the knife out so fast that lines of blood are being painted onto the wall behind them. Kirsch is trying to claw his eyes out and scream for help but it’s already too late.

The killer is too busy to notice me coming up behind him. I lift up the bat and swing downward as hard as I can into the back of his head, nails and screws cracking through his skull with ease. I have to step on his back to gain leverage so I can pull the bat out and I swing again. I need to make sure he’s dead because I’m fucking done with him killing my friends and this stops now.

He’s lying on top of Kirsch, their blood mixing together in a pool on the floor beside them. Carmilla helps me pull this guy off of Kirsch and check for a pulse. He’s already gone. This killer stabbed him so many times, there was no way anyone could live through that.

I finally fall apart. I’ve had to be strong for everyone but now that the killer is dead, I can’t hold it in anymore. Three of my friends are gone and I just had to murder someone! I don’t know how anyone could kill another person and ever be ok again. I feel so sick. I feel like a monster. I’m crying out “oh God” over and over when I collapse into Carmilla’s arms. I didn’t realize that I’m covered in this man’s blood until Carmilla takes her shirt off and starts wiping it off my face. I’m screaming while she holds me and she’s trying her best to calm me down when we hear Perry shouting from the living room.

We run out there to find Natalie, Danny, LaF and Perry standing behind the couch while there is another man all in black with a mask standing next to an unconscious Will. He’s not saying a word and all you can hear in the room is the sounds of heavy breathing and whimpering. He takes out a knife and Natalie and Perry are frozen in terror but the rest of us draw our weapons to be ready for anything this guy brings at us.

We’re all standing there, staring at this man when Mel and Theo come running in behind us from the kitchen.

“Hey guys, I thought I heard something in the…” Theo says, giving this guy the distraction he’s been waiting for.

When our attention shifts to Theo, the killer thrusts his knife down directly into Will’s heart. He twists the knife a bit and pulling it out before turning to run into the foyer. Natalie screams and drops to her knees. Before the man disappears around the corner, I pull the hatchet out of my belt and throw it as hard as I can. The blade hits him in the back, just below his right shoulder and he falls into the side of the piano making the strings vibrate and it sounds like thunder.

Danny jumps over the couch to catch the guy before he crawls away. When she gets close enough to him, she swings her axe down into his head, splitting it like a piece of firewood while screaming **_“FUCK YOU!”_** at the top of her lungs. Danny winds up and swings down again, and again, and again until I run up behind her to grab the axe. She fights me at first screaming **_“HE KILLED BETTY!”_** but she eventually falls to the ground and lets go of her weapon. I grab ahold of her and we’re crying; tears washing away the blood that has painted our faces red.

“Carmilla, check the house!” I yell over my shoulder never letting go of Danny.

“Ok everyone, grab your shit, go in pairs and make sure that no one else is in here.” Carm says and they all go running.

“Laura, please tell me it’s over. Tell me he was the last one.” Danny sobs.

“I don’t know. I hope so but I don’t know.” I say.

Carmilla and LaFontaine come running back into the room and I’m doing my best to hold Danny together.

“I think we’re ok. We didn’t see anyone else in the house.” Carm says.

“Good, let’s get everyone back into the living room. We all need to talk.” I say.

Carmilla helps me get Danny onto the couch before she covers up all the bodies and LaF goes to call everyone back. Danny is trying her best to catch her breath but she’s starting to hyperventilate. Danny’s one of the strongest people I know but so much has happened to her in the last few hours, she was bound to fall apart too.

Perry comes over to sit with Danny and I’m relieved because I just need a minute. I walk over by the window to get some space. Everyone is looking to me for an answer. I don’t know how to do this. I thought for a second that maybe with our numbers strong, we could take on one maniac, but now we’ve killed two of them and I don’t know if there are more out there. I mean, these guys have clearly done this before. They murdered my friends without any hesitation; like it was just another day. If we run, there’s a chance that someone else could be out there waiting for us and we could get killed. If we stay here, there’s also a chance of us getting picked off one by one while we wait for the help that will never come.

So, that’s it. We have to try. There’s a chance of danger no matter what we do, but if we run we could actually make it.

“Ok everyone. Let’s talk.” I say.

We all gather around the couch so that Danny can hear what’s going on. Theo and LaF stay over by each entrance just in case someone else may be in the house.

“How did the second guy get in? Does anybody know?” I ask.

“Actually, I think he’s been here the whole time.” Mel says quietly.

“What are you talking about?” Carm asks.

“When we went to go see if anyone else was in the house, I saw an open door so I checked it out. It’s just a closet but there are empty water bottles and protein bars in there like someone had been squatting for a few days.”

“Dear god, you mean to tell me this man has been in my house for days? While LaF and I- How could we not know!? NO! This isn’t supposed to be happening. This can’t happen. We were supposed to have nice dinners and catch up; talking about our families and celebrating happiness. We’re not supposed to be fighting for our lives! Why can’t this weekend just **_BE NORMAL!?”_** Perry screams.

LaF runs over to console Perry but she just shrugs them off in anger so LaF just returns to their post at the kitchen door while Perry cools down.

“Perry, I know and I’m sorry that we missed this. How could we have missed him being in there?” I asked.

“I don’t know, we checked all the doors.” Carm says.

“We didn’t check the locked ones. The closets open only with a key.” LaF admits.

“So you’re telling me that the first guy knew he was in there and let him out?” I say.

“They’ve obviously been planning this for a long time.” LaF says and tightens their grip on the knife their holding.

“Who the fuck are these people?” Danny asks, finally sitting up.

“I have no idea, but we can’t stay here anymore.” I say.

“Where are we going to go?” Theo asks.

“We’re going to try for that sheriff station again.”

“That didn’t work so well last time though did it?” he fires back.

“Look Theo, I know you’re scared but this is the only option we have left. We can’t stay here and wait for help that doesn’t even know it’s supposed to be coming. We have to try,” I say.

“There could be someone out there!” Perry says.

“You’re right, Perry.” Carmilla interjects. “There could be someone else out there but there were just two of them in here. We’re not any safer staying in this house than we are trying to run. Laura’s right. We need to go.”

“Everyone put on as many layers as you can and grab your weapons. We’re leaving in five minutes,” I say.

We all break off to shrug our coats and scarves on, and I’m trying my best to keep my composure. I have no idea what’s going to happen when we get out that door. We could go out there to find no one, run to safety and get back home to our families, or we could run straight into another trap.

Carmilla’s helping me into my coat and buttoning it up when I grab her hands to stop her.

“What?” she asks.

“I’m scared, Carm. I’m so scared.”

“I know, Laura. Me too.” she says and I fall into her holding her extra tight just in case. I couldn’t handle it if something happened to her. Carmilla and Katie are my entire life. Without them I’m nothing and I’m not going to let these psychos take them away from me. We’re both making it out of here.

“Everything is going to be ok. We’re going to make it to the sheriff station and back home to Katie before you know it, alright?” she says pulling me even closer.

“We have to.” I say.

“We will.”

Carmilla puts her hands on my shoulders and pushes me back slightly. I’m looking up into her dark brown eyes and I feel safe for the first time since we found Sarah Jane’s blood in the basement. She brings her hands up to grab be cheeks gently and pull me into a gentle kiss. My hands move around her waist and I pull her body into mine not wanting this moment to end because I know what’s going to happen when it does. We’re suspended in time, lost in this kiss that seems to have dismantled and shred of pain and fear we’re feeling; even if only for a moment. I realize I’m crying when we break apart to take a breath and Carmilla swipes her thumbs across my face to dry my tears.  

With our bodies and foreheads pressed together she says “Wanna get out of here, Cutie?”

I smile into one more kiss before whispering “You are unbelievable.”

We take each other’s hand and head over to the group to set out on our long hike. We gather any weapons we can reasonably carry, some water, and some flashlights in case it gets dark before we make it there.

“Once we get outside, our goal is to walk as fast as possible without making much noise. We don’t want to draw any attention to ourselves in case someone else is out there. We need to have people looking out in all directions at all times. Never let your guard down. Not even for a second. Understand?” I ask.

Everyone agrees and we make out way to the door. Carmilla agrees to open it while I take a first look. She unlocks the door, pulling it open slowly and I take a deep breath before stepping over the threshold.

 ** _“LAURA NO!”_** Carmilla screams.

Everything goes black.

* * *

 

When I come to, I can’t open my eyes all the way without the light from the chandelier feeling like it’s tearing through my skull. I was definitely hit by something. My head is throbbing and I can feel the blood running down the back of my neck. I’m back in the house, tied up to a chair in the foyer next to the body of killer number two.

“Laura, you’re awake!” Carm whispers. She’s tied up in the chair beside me along with LaFontaine, Perry and Danny. “Are you ok?”

“I think so. What the hell happened? Where’s everyone else?” I ask quietly.

“I think Natalie’s dead. She got hit when we were trying to...” LaF says but suddenly stops.

“Trying to what?” I ask.

“When they were trying to get away,” I hear someone say from behind me. “But we couldn’t let you go. We’ve worked way too long on this to have little miss ‘trained fighter’ take it away now.”

“Who the fuck are you? Oh my god, is that?” I say.

“Yes, Laura. Mel hit you on the way out the door. They’re a part of whatever is going on here,” Carm says.

“Mel, why are you doing this?” I ask.

“It doesn’t matter why we’re doing this. None of you are going to live long enough to see daylight so trying to understand the situation is really a moot point.”

“Theo, have you called her yet?” Mel shouts.

Theo come into the room, carrying that steel pipe in one hand and a phone in the other.

“Yea, they should be here soon and we can finish all this. I can’t believe it’s finally coming to an end.” he says.

Mel and Theo walk away to discuss something and I gives me a chance to ask some burning questions.

“Hey, I thought phones don’t work out here.” I say.

“Looks like they’ve had a satellite phone this whole time. They’re behind this, or at least in on it.” LaF says.

“How could we be so stupid?” Perry asks.

“This is not our fault!” Carm interjects. “They have been around for years, coming to family dinners and our kids’ birthday parties. They have been a part of our lives for so long, there’s no way that we could have known what they were up to. Either they snapped or this was their plan all along. Either way, we need to get out of this or…”

“No. Don’t say it. We’re going to figure this out. Just give me a minute.” I say.

I’m pulling at the ropes on my hands and they’ve done a thorough job containing us. Anyone would admit defeat when faced with this situation, but I won’t give up until I take my last breath. I really don’t want to wait for Mel and Theo’s guests to arrive before I do something.

“Carmilla, I’m going to need your help.”

“What is it?”

“As soon as I free my hands, I’m going to untie you. Loosen the ropes on your feet and I’ll do the same but we have to look like we’re still tied up.”

“How are you going to get out of the ropes?” she asks.

“Don’t worry about that. Just be ready to attack when I say go.”

“Of course. Whatever you need.” she says.

My dad had this irrational fear when I was younger of me being kidnapped so he taught me all kinds of ways to get away from an assailant. One lesson in particular always grossed me out, but now I understand why he told me about this and I have never been more thankful for my father that I am in this moment.

I take a deep breath and grab the thumb on my right hand with my left. Tears start to run down my cheeks and I’m fighting a strangled scream as I bend my thumb back as hard as I can. When I feel it break, I double over in pain as far as the ropes will let me; trying anything to suppress the pain and keep from passing out. Carmilla is quietly freaking out beside me. I probably should have warned her I was going to do that, but we don’t have time.

I maneuver the shattered bones in my hand to allow them to slip through the ropes. Fucking hell this hurts so badly. Once my hands are free, I lean over and untie Carmilla before trying to untie my legs. My broken hand is making that impossible so Carm helps me once she frees herself.

“Why would you do that?” she asks.

“It worked didn’t it?”

Before she can answer, we hear footsteps coming from the kitchen. We quickly arrange the ropes to make it look like we’re still tied up. As soon as they let their guard down, Carm and I will jump up and attack.

“So, our associates will be here any minute. I’m sure they’ll tell you all what’s going on and then this can all be over. Sound good?” Mel asks.

“No it doesn’t fucking sound good. Let us go!” Carm shouts.

“No can do, Carmilla,” Theo says. “Our plan will only work if you all die in this house. Mel and I will be the innocent witnesses that tried our best to save our friends but it just didn’t work out.”

“You’ve gone mad.” Perry says.

“Damn right we’re mad!” Mel shouts back at her.

“Not yet. It’s not our place to tell them.” Theo says.

* * *

 

A few minutes later, we hear a car pull up and Mel goes running out the front door. She comes walking back in holding the hand of some man I’ve never seen. A red haired women comes walking in behind them and over to Theo, pulling him into a kiss.

“Baby, I see that things have gone a little off plan.” the woman says.

“I know, and I’m sorry. Everything was fine until they started fighting back. They’re stronger than we thought. Especially the tiny one.” Theo says back to her.

“Wait…” Perry says and whips her head around to look behind her. “No. It can’t be.”

“Perr, what’s going on?” LaF asks her.

“Oh my god, this is all my fault. Will had nothing to do with this. Everyone’s dead because of me.” she says before breaking down into tears.

“Perry what are you talking about?” I ask.

“I’m related to the two that just walked in. They’re my cousins I haven’t seen since out grandmother’s funeral. Oh my god. They’re all dead because of me.”

“Oh Lola, would you just shut the fuck up already?” the man says, walking up to us with Mel close behind.

“Jeffrey, why are you doing this?” Perry asks.

“Why are we doing this? We’re simply here to take what rightfully belongs to us.”

“Look, I will give you and Nicole all the money you want. Just let my friends go and we can work this out between us.” Perry says.

“It’s way too late for that, Lola. Way too late.” Nicole says. “Come on baby, I haven’t seen you in weeks. Show me the rest of our new house.” She takes Theo’s hand and they wander up the stairs.

“What do you really think is going to happen here?” Danny asks.

“Who are you again?” Jeffrey asks.

“Doesn’t matter. What do you want?” Danny insists.

“Well, years ago when our grandmother passed, she left her entire fortune to Lola’s mother. It’s not mine and Nicole’s fault that our mother was a piece of shit that was hated by her parents. So to make a long story short, I want the money that should have been left to me. It’s not fair that I have to work every day of my life in a job that I hate just to pay for a tiny house that my wife can’t stand.” Jeffrey says.

“I do hate that fucking house.” Mel says.

“Wait, you and Theo aren’t a couple?” I ask.

“Oh god no, that’s disgusting. Jeff and I have been married for seven years. Theo and I have known each other since high school and when Jeff and I got together he met Nicole and the rest is history.” she says as she leans in to kiss Jeffrey. Gross.

“So why have you been playing us this entire time?” I ask.

“We had to have someone inside the group to make this work. Who do you think cut the phone lines? Who do you think let the killers in after you kept locking the doors?”

“Jeffrey, how long have you been planning this?” Perry asks.

“Once we heard of your mother’s illness and impending death, we started to put things together.”

“Listen to me. You don’t have to do this. You can have all my money. You can take everything. You can even kill me, but just let everyone else go. They have nothing to do with this,” Perry says.

“Actually, they do. You’ve always been one to tie up loose ends, Lola. In the case of your sudden death all your money would go to your… partner, and then to your friends. The only way Nicole and I will get our hands on this money is if you all die. We have already sacrificed too many years of our lives and spilled too much blood to stop now,” Jeff states before stepping in the space between myself and Perry.

He pulls a gun from his waistband and pulls the lever back, loading a bullet into the chamber. He’s facing away from me and it’s now or never. When he raises the pistol at Perry, I move the rope away from my feet and kick the back of his legs as hard as I can before I lunge for him. When we fall to the ground the gun goes off, hitting Mel in the shoulder and Carmilla jumps to tackle her.

I’m trying my best to get the gun away from Jeffrey. He’s on his back and I’m on top of him. He’s got both of his hands on the gun and I’m slamming them into the floor as hard as I can and then the gun goes sliding underneath the piano. He reaches up to choke me and for a second he’s got me. I can feel his hands closing around my neck and my air slipping away while I try my best to pull away. In a last ditch effort, I grab him by the hair with my one good hand and start banging his head into the ground. Just as my vision is starting to dissipate completely from a lack of oxygen, I feel his hands start to relax but I don’t stop. I take ahold of the other side of his head with my broken hand and drive his skull into the hard wood until I see blood and he goes limp.

I look over to Carm and she’s completely lost control. She’s straddling Mel and punching her over and over. Left, right, left, right; each blow to the face in quick succession and extremely powerful. Mel’s not moving anymore, but Carmilla isn’t stopping. I get up, run over to her to try to stop her. When I reach for her, she brings her hand back to punch Mel again and she knocks me into the wall.

“Oh my god, Laura!” she says, running over to me. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

“Carm, I know. It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not. I lost control and then I ended up hurting my wife.” she says, her eyes finding the floor.

“Carmilla, look at me.” She does. “You didn’t hit me on purpose and I’m fine. We can worry about this later. Help me,” I say while I run over to Perry. We untie her, LaF and Danny and are about to run out the door when we hear laughing coming from upstairs.

“Jeffrey, are you done yet? I heard you shooting them and I’m just ready to go…” Nicole says from the second floor.

We all move into the living room to wait for her and Theo to come downstairs.

“Look, I’m really tired and I would rather not have to- Oh god, Theo get down here!” she screams and runs up to Jeffrey’s body.

Theo comes running down the stairs, still zipping his pants and is stunned to find Jeffrey and Mel dead on the foyer floor.

“That’s it, this shit ends now.” Theo says.

He pulls a gun from his waistband, points it into the living room and starts firing aimlessly. We all dive behind the couch to get out of the line of fire. Once I hear the shooting stop, I peer over the back of the couch and get a couple shots off with Jeffrey’s gun. Two rounds hit Theo and he goes down while trying to reload his gun. Nicole screams and comes running for me. Perry starts screaming while I stand up to get better aim Nicole before I squeeze the trigger, only to hear a click. Before I can even react, Nicole is flying over the couch and takes me to the ground. She’s pounding into me with closed fists, taking me apart one blow at a time. Carm comes running over, tackles her and wraps her arm around Nicole’s neck and begins to choke her while pulling her off of me.

“Get the fuck off me!” Nicole says with a strained voice.

 ** _“FUCKING DIE ALREADY!”_** Carmilla screams, tightening the grip she has around Nicole’s throat. It takes what seems like eternity before she finally gives up and slips into unconsciousness.

“Carmilla, stop. Enough.” I say as crawl over to her.

“No, Laura. Her heart is still beating, I can feel it!”

“Carmilla. Stop.” I say as I grab her shirt and pull her away from Nicole and into me. She starts crying and checks over every part of me.

“Are you ok? Oh my god she hurt you, Laura.”

“She got a few punches in but I’ll be fine.”

“Laura, I didn’t want to kill them but I couldn’t let them hurt you. I had to.” she says in between breathless sobs.

“Carm, I know. It’s not your fault. Everything is going to be ok.” I say while pulling her into a bruising kiss. We’re both crying too hard at this point to fully press our lips together but we need this.

Carmilla wraps her arms around my back and is holding on to me tight when Perry screams “Laura, help me!”

I look over to where she is and I see Perry hovering over LaF, panicking and trying to stop the bleeding. Carm and I crawl over to them to see how bad it really is.

“I think they were shot and I don’t know what to do. I can’t lose my person and we just started the best part of our lives together and I can’t go on without…”

LaF cries out in pain, stopping Perry from rambling. When Theo was firing into the room, one of the bullets hit LaF in the right side of the chest and they’re losing blood fast.

“Perry we have to get help.” I say.

“LaFontaine can’t go anywhere in this condition!” Perry yells.

“She’s right, Laura. If we try to move them, their lung could collapse and we wouldn’t be able to do anything.” Danny says.

“Ok, well we have to go. We are not going to die in here.” I say.

“I can’t leave them alone!” Perry cries.

“You can stay here. Danny, will you stay here with them in case someone else is here? I don’t want them to be unprotected.”

“Yea, I’ll stay. You guys just get us some help. Please,” Danny says.

“Do you think they have a car outside?” Carm asks.

“Good idea,” I say before running over to Jeffrey’s body. I take a deep breath and methodically check his pockets to find nothing. Carm is checking Nicole’s pockets and finds a set of keys belonging to a Range Rover. We make sure that Danny has a weapon before taking a gun and knife for ourselves in case we run into more trouble and after putting on our coats, we’re out the door.

We’re walking toward the blacked out SUV, looking in every direction for the smallest sign of darkness in the blanket of snow covering the ground. Every time we thought this fight was over, someone else would appear and I’m afraid that it will happen again before we get the sheriff station. I’m afraid that while we’re gone, something is going to happen to the friends I have left. I’m just afraid.

Retreating into the relative safety of a locked vehicle, we’re racing down the driveway as fast as the ice on the ground will allow. After everything that we’ve been through this weekend, we can’t wreck before we get to safety.

* * *

 

I’m sitting in the passenger seat next to Carm and neither of us are saying a word. There is so much to be said but it’s like we’re both holding our breath until we’re really safe. There were just too many times in the last few days where I allowed myself to believe that we would all be ok; that the threat was over. That was a big mistake and I’m not going to make it again. We’ve all lost so much already, I can’t let this get any worse.

We drive past a sign reading “Sheriff’s Department 2 Miles” and I finally breathe a sigh of relief. Carmilla reaches her hand over to me, taking mine and pulling it up to her lips to kiss my palm softly.

Suddenly we hear a loud bang and Carm loses control of the car. We’re sliding off the road and she can’t do anything about it. The SUV slides into a snow bank and begins to roll. I lost count of how many times the SUV flipped after the third time my head slammed into the window, effectively smashing it into pieces. The car finally comes to a rest against a tree, but we’re upside down and still hanging from our seatbelts.

“Carm, are you ok?” I ask while trying to assess my own pain but get no answer. “Carmilla? Answer me please.” I get nothing. I reach to unbuckle my seatbelt but I can’t get it open so I cut my way out of it, falling into a pile of broken glass. I crawl over to Carm who is still hanging upside down and I see that she’s bleeding really badly from the left side of her head.

“Carmilla, please wake up. I can’t do this without you.” I say though blistering tears. “You can’t leave us like this. I won’t put up with it. We have so many years left together. Katie and I need you so just wake up. You have to be there when Katie has her first crush, when she goes through her awkward middle school phase, when she has her first sleepover with her friends and doesn’t want us to embarrass her, when she graduates high school, and when she leaves the house to take on the world as the brave young woman you and I have raised her to be. I don’t want to do this alone, Carmilla. I can’t do this without you. We’ve only been together for thirteen years and that is just not enough. When you married me you said it was forever and I’m not going to let you get out of this.”

I crawl out of the broken windshield since my door is crushed against the tree. Every move I make, shards of glass are cutting into me but I could care less. It’s not that far to the station and I will carry Carm there if I have to. She’s not going to die like this.

I get around to her side of the car and crawl in slightly so I can cut her seatbelt and brace her fall. I can’t let her fall face first into all this glass. I’m about half way through slicing the belt when I feel something grab my leg and begin to pull me out of the car. I’m screaming and holding onto the steering wheel but I’m no match for the strength behind the person pulling my legs. The noise of the struggle brings Carmilla back to consciousness just as my fingers slip and I’m yanked back into the snow. I try to get up but they step on my back and force me into the ground, putting enough weight into me that I can hardly breathe.

“Laura!” Carm screams, trying desperately to get free.

“You really thought you were going to get away didn’t you?” I hear a man’s voice say from above me.

“Who are you? Why are you doing this to us?” I ask.

“Who I am doesn’t matter. I was hired to make sure that none of you got away. The operation is that everyone is to be executed and I am simply following orders.”

“Orders from whom? Theo and Nicole are dead. If they’re the ones who hired you, you’re not getting paid any time soon so this is pointless. Let us go.”

I feel the boot on my spine begin to lift and I flip over onto my back to see a man all in black but he’s not wearing a mask. He’s still holding the rifle that he apparently used to shoot out one of our tires, and run us off the road.

“What do you mean they’re dead?” he asks, looking almost hurt.

“I mean that they’re dead. We killed them so there is no point in you killing us. You’re not getting paid because there is no money to pay you with. Let us go and we won’t say anything about what happened in between the house and the sheriff station.”

I hear a loud noise coming from the car so Carm apparently finished cutting herself free. The man takes a step closer to me and trains the barrel of the gun right to my face.

“Jeff was my best friend you little bitch. I don’t give a fuck about the money anymore. He was like a brother to me and I will take great pleasure in watching your brains being blown all over this beautiful landscape. Believe me.”

He loads a bullet into the chamber, squints his eyes and takes a deep breath. This is it. This is how I’m going to die. I’m not seeing my life flash before my eyes life every cliché movie says it will. All I can see is the framed picture that Katie keeps in her room of our family. I close my eyes to accept the inevitable because this guy will gun me down before I could even get the chance to reach for my gun. I hear him scream fall to the ground. He’s dropped the rifle to hold his Achilles tendon that Carmilla cut from the car. I can’t get the rifle away him from this position but I quickly reach into the waistband of my jeans, pull out the pistol I took from Theo and empty the entire clip into this man’s chest. He was probably as good as dead after the fourth bullet, but I added a few extra to be sure.

I throw the gun aside, and crawl over to Carmilla. She’s badly hurt, but with my help was able to crawl from the car. We grab his rifle in case Perry’s homicidal family has any more blood-thirsty mercenaries lying in wait somewhere in the woods and begin walking the rest of the way. Carm’s right leg was but really badly in the crash so she’s leaning on me as we fight through the thick blanket of snow. We’re both crying out in agony with every step we take and leaving a trail of fresh blood in the snow behind us.

We pass this dense group of trees and finally see it. There’s a small cabin just off the road and there are sheriff cars parked out front. We’re fighting with every step, to make it close enough to the building for someone to see us.

We’re probably twenty feet from the front door when a deputy comes busting through the door and screams “DROP THE WEAPON!”

“No, you don’t understand. We’ve been attacked and we’re badly hurt and my friends”

“ ** _I SAID DROP THE WEAPON! I WILL NOT HESITATE TO TAKE YOU DOWN!”_**

I throw the rifle as far away from me as I can.

“LAY ON THE GROUND!”

We do.

“HANDS OUT TO YOUR SIDE.”

We comply and a rush of deputies come over to handcuff Carm and I. We have been through so much hell the last few days and now this is happening. Awesome.

“Please, we need your help!” I yell.

“What are you talking about little lady? You can’t just come up to a group of law enforcement officers brandishing a weapon. Do you know how dangerous that is?” one of them says.

“I know, and I’m sorry. We just really need your help. We were staying at a house with eight… well six other friends about fifteen miles from here. We were attacked the first night. They killed five of my friends, tried to kill my wife who was badly injured in a crash a few miles back caused by yet another maniac and we tried everything to get here. We tried to run so many times but my friends kept dying.” I cry.

I feel the handcuffs being taken off of me and they stand me up. Carmilla tries to get up with me, but her head injury is a lot worse than it was earlier so I go to her.

I’m sitting next to Carm, cradling her head in my lap when a deputy kneels down to ask me “Where is this house?”

“Fifteen miles east of here. Just follow the road.”

“Alright everyone, call for medical assistant for these two and get all available units to that house.”

“No, we’re going with you. Three of our friends are still alive. They’re waiting for us to come back.” I say.

“We don’t know yet if the area is secure. You stay with your wife and wait for the ambulance with Deputy Hall here. My deputies and I will go to the house, and radio back when we’ve surveyed the situation. Ok?” he says.

“Fine, but please hurry.”

In the commotion of the lights and sirens all around us, I can’t help but feel finally happy. My heart has been filled with fear and rage all this time and we’re finally safe. We made it out and we’re safe.

“Hey,” Carm says. I look down to see her a bit more pale than usual, but more beautiful than ever. She smiles up at me and I can’t help but return a smile to her. “We did it, Laura. We made it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa. Thank you for reading this. I'm really proud of this and I hope you enjoyed reading it. I will be writing an epilogue for this after I update my big multi chapter fic. I promise that the epilogue will be supper fluffy and gross. It will also wrap up all the loose ends in a nice little gay bow. Thank you again for your support and I love you all.
> 
> Please let me know what you think either in the comments or on tumblr under the same name! :)


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